Computer Freezes Randomly

[ultimatballr]

Before a few days ago my computer was running perfectly fine with no problems at all. The other day when I came home from work my friend was here waiting for me and was on the computer. No big deal I knew he was coming over and assumed he'd be on the computer. Well we were hanging out playing a bit of xbox and he is also showing me a few videos on youtube. We focus back on the game ans when he goes to get back on the comp it is frozen (or at least the mouse or keyboard would not work) I check the plugs and tell him to just turn the comp off and back on again. He does and the computer starts up fine... about 15-20 minutes later it "freezes" again, like before the keyboard and mouse wouldn't move. Again we turn it off and repeat the process. It happens about 3 or 4 more times so eventually I just turn it off and leave it off.

 

Yesterday, after he leaves I try to figure out what the problem is with the computer. I start it up and go on the net, I go to log into RS and right as I click log in a blue screen flashes up on my computer screen and the only words I remember seeing, though there was a lot more, were Crash and Dumping. After the blue screen the computer shuts down and does not restart. I turn the computer back on and it goes to the black screen, I select start windows normally and it does not freeze on me. I let it sit and get on xbox and the computer goes to sleep. When I go to activate it out of sleep the monitor stays off (the light is orange, usually signifying sleep) and won't turn blue when I click/move the mouse or press keys on the keyboard. So I assume that the computer has frozen yet again. I restart it and start it up in safe mode and it freezes before fully loading up my desktop screen. Now it continues to do the keyboard/mouse freezing.

 

My friend insists he did nothing on the computer but I am unsure what websites he went to and whether or not he got me a virus unknowingly or not.

 

I am not a computer guy by any means, I can work my way around one but lingo and the command prompts or whatever I know nothing about. My friend is also not a computer person nor does he play computer games. This is just a little background info I don't know what helps.

 

My computer is a Gateway but as for more than that I have no idea what type etc etc specs and this and that no idea. I have Free Avast running as far as virus scans going but I have yet to been able to get a chance to run a scan without the computer freezing on me. OS is Vista if that matters.

 

Is there anything I can possibly do?

[Wugmasterx]

I have a gateaway computer, and i am a computer guy, yet nobody has ever said that has ever happened. Try Defragmenting the hard drive.

[Laura]

I have a gateaway computer, and i am a computer guy, yet nobody has ever said that has ever happened. Try Defragmenting the hard drive.

I won't say that it won't work, but it's highly unlikely. More likely is that the scan would be interrupted anyway. Your best bet is to boot up into safe mode and try the scan again.

 

To use a Safe Boot option, follow these steps:

Restart your computer and start pressing the F8 key on your keyboard. On a computer that is configured for booting to multiple operating systems, you can press the F8 key when the Boot Menu appears.

 

Select an option when the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, and then press ENTER.

 

When the Boot menu appears again, and the words "Safe Mode" appear in blue at the bottom, select the installation that you want to start, and then press ENTER.

[fastortoise]

my friend has the exact same "freeze" and "blue screen dumping" problem as you... he studied 2 years in computer tech and has no idea what any of it means, and he's just waiting for his copy of windows 7 to arrive. He'll then wipe his HD clean and install 7

[Sbrideau]

This looks like a driver problem. If you can, go to your computer manufacturer's website (gateway here) and with your model number, find it on their tech support section and find the chipset driver for your computer. Download and install. This process should be fast enough, but the download can be done on another computer then brought the the problematic computer with cd or usb key or w/e.

 

Way to find the model of the computer, usually it's written on the computer itself, but if not, it might be writen on the my computer properties (not every installations shows this though, let's hope yours does).

 

my friend has the exact same "freeze" and "blue screen dumping" problem as you... he studied 2 years in computer tech and has no idea what any of it means, and he's just waiting for his copy of windows 7 to arrive. He'll then wipe his HD clean and install 7

Let's hope he didn't pass if he's that computer illiterate after a 2 years course.

[ultimatballr]

Okay so I started it up in safe mode and started up Avast. Before the scan initiated the computer restarted itself. The menu appeared where they offer multiple options (safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with Drivers [something like that] and Start windows normally) I selected start normally to see what happens and now my computer screen is black and its been that way for about 5 minutes now.

 

I am stuck here...

[Sbrideau]

In that menu (you can usually go there by tapping F8 (well, most computers, since some computers the it's another F key), was there the option "start with last good known configuration"? If it is there, try it.

 

And have you tried the solution I gave you in my previous post?